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| Africa Subsaharan | |
| Why Wagner is winning hearts in the Central African Republic | |
| 2024-02-21 | |
| [BBC] A welcoming atmosphere greets congregants shuffling into the Russian Orthodox Church, tucked away on an unassuming but badly pot-holed side street in the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). At first glance there is nothing out of the ordinary about this Sunday morning scene in the mainly Christian country. But Saint-André-Apôtre, about a 20-minute drive from the centre of Bangui, has come to symbolise for some the friendly ties between Russia and the CAR. Father Serguei Voyemawa, who runs the country's only Russian Orthodox Church, is dressed in a floor-length white robe covered by an ornate gold cloak. He walks around reciting prayers and swinging an incense burner as the congregation watches his every move. The walls of the modest building, which has a concrete floor and aluminium roof supported by wooden beams, are adorned with hand-painted images of saints while half a dozen candles burn on the wooden altar.
[BBC] Russia is offering governments in Africa a "regime survival package" in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources, a major new report has found. Internal Russian government documents, seen by the BBC, also detail how it is working to change mining laws in West Africa, with the ambition of dislodging Western companies from an area of strategic importance. This is part of the process of the Russian government taking over the businesses of the Wagner mercenary group, broken up after a failed coup in June 2023. The multibillion dollar operations are now mostly being run as the Russian "Expeditionary Corps", managed by the man accused of being behind the attempt to murder Sergei Skripal using the Novichok nerve agent on the streets of the UK - a charge Russia has denied. "This is the Russian state coming out of the shadows in its Africa policy," says Jack Watling, land warfare specialist at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) and one of the report's authors. Back in June 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin was probably the most feared and famous mercenary in the world. His Wagner Group was in control of billions of dollars' worth of companies and projects, while his fighters were central to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Then, he decided to march on Moscow, ostensibly calling for the removal of the defence minister and head of the general staff, but in reality threatening President Vladimir Putin in a way no-one had before. Within weeks he had died in a highly suspicious plane crash, along with much of the Wagner leadership. There was widespread speculation at the time about what would happen to the Wagner Group. Now, we have the answer. According to Dr Watling, "there was a meeting in the Kremlin fairly shortly after Prigozhin's mutiny, in which it was decided that Wagner's Africa operations would fall directly under the control of Russian military intelligence, the GRU". Control was to be handed to Gen Andrey Averyanov, head of Unit 29155, a secretive operation specialising in targeting killings and destabilising foreign governments. But it seems Gen Averyanov's new business was not destabilising governments, but rather securing their future, as long as they paid by signing away their mineral rights. | |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #2 Because they feed the ones that they don't kill. Works every time. All that's left are friends. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2024-02-21 10:30 |
| #1 Exports The top exports of Central African Republic are Gold ($47.6M), Rough Wood ($37.9M), Diamonds ($16.3M), Sawn Wood ($8.85M), and Large Construction Vehicles ($1.14M), exporting mostly to United Arab Emirates ($41.7M), China ($31.7M), Italy ($17.2M), France ($6.42M), and Belgium ($5.66M). [Gold and diamonds are likely undervalued, as they were during French alliance.] |
| Posted by: Huputle Cherelet4131 2024-02-21 08:55 |